Beach renaissance plans split

Wednesday

YORK — Many of the York Beach Renaissance Committee's plans for a revitalized beach center were thwarted Monday night after a contentious public hearing before the Board of Selectmen.

YORK — Many of the York Beach Renaissance Committee's plans for a revitalized beach center were thwarted Monday night after a contentious public hearing before the Board of Selectmen.

After almost five hours of discussion, selectmen voted 3-1, with Dwight Bardwell dissenting, to pass along only a portion of the committee's plans for a second public hearing in March.

Selectmen declined to forward a plan for a mixed business and residential "transition zone" on the west side of Main Street, and decided not to forward a set of rules mandating the appearance of York Beach buildings.

Selectmen will only consider at their March 24 public hearing "minor changes" to the York Beach Village zone, according to Community Development Director Steve Burns. Those changes, however, could include extending the downtown zone for a short distance north into a Main Street residential zone.

About 70 residents and business people attended the meeting Monday, many saying that other Beach-area problems should be tackled before major zoning changes are implemented. Many criticized the plan as overambitious and harmful, irrelevant to fixing the beach's problems. Speakers ticked off a list of York Beach's higher priority problems, including poor drainage, a lack of parking and heavy summertime traffic.

Transition zone

York Beach resident Valerie Doran was a member of the public who criticized the plans Monday. Earlier in the day she toured the already crowded area of the proposed transition zone north of the village.

"For them to want to increase the density is insanity," she said, pointing at two houses not more than 10 feet apart. "The problems are there ... Why are we talking about making them worse?"

John Welch at 49 Main St., also has spoken out against the plan. He lives across the street from the proposed transition zone.

"I bought this home 55 years ago. It's a residential area. I want to keep it that way," he said.

Beth Fowkes, 48 Main St.,, wondered why the Renaissance Committee didn't stick to its modest, original plan to fix sidewalks and improve traffic. Her other concern is developer Oscar Plotkin, who has expressed interest in redeveloping the York's Wild Kingdom land.

"I feel like the chamber is paving the way for him to come in. €¦ But I feel that once he gets in here he'll use any loophole he can €¦ to the point where you'll have a Dunkin' Donuts and a Starbucks across the street from one another," she said when contacted at home.

At the hearing Monday she added, "This is a freight train coming through taking everything in its way."

The public hearing

On Monday, former Selectman Ron Nowell asked for a copy of the town attorney's legal opinion on the Renaissance Committee proposal. Told there was none, he said he knew of no other Maine town that proposes "massive zoning changes" without legal opinions about the proposals.

"It's in direct violation of state law," he said.

He also complained that the Planning Board made illegal decisions about the plan at a January work session.

"No one had any notice that the Planning Board was to conduct any business," he said, adding, "I have never seen such a fiasco in my life."

He recommended tabling the issue.

Wearing a sign on her shirt that said, "I support the York Beach Renaissance," Chamber of Commerce President Cathy Goodwin, acknowledged the "many differing opinions, common for a large body of work," that expressed a "love for York Beach."

"We feel we have been following what the comprehensive plan has asked for," she said.

But she was in the minority.

Calling it a "special interest proposal, resident Cliff Estes, a key figure in the creation and passage of the town's growth ordinance, said the plan was not ready to go forward. He criticized the plan for placing "too much emphasis on expansion in an area five times the area of the current downtown," and he asserted that more than 1,000 600-square-foot units could be built on the 50-acre Spear property, which would remain in the plan's transition zone.

"What could go there is massive and opposite of what the town wants," he said.

Burns estimated that under the proposal more than four times the current number of units in the proposed transition zone could be built on the Spear property.

While saying that he was "fully supportive of the ultimate renaissance of York Beach," former Selectman Torbert Macdonald said, "What's driving this process is not inherently in the public's interest." He said the proposal was really the work of a private development group and the chamber.

He said fixing parking and drainage problems should come first. And he advised the board to leave higher densities only for the beach center for now — "if you have to do something."

Kathy Boston, part-owner of the Goldenrod, acknowledged the Renaissance Committee's hard work, but also said the beach's other problems should come first.

"With all due respect, we ask you do not put this before voters in May," she said.

On the other hand, Renaissance Committee member Joe Lipton said, "It's a great feeling to work toward something. €¦ We all want something to happen."

Reading from the comprehensive plan, he said that citizens got together to do something about York Beach because things "fell through the cracks."

"The comp plan has been sitting on a desk for 20 years, and people are trying to get something done," he said.

Dawn Fernald, chairwoman of the Renaissance Committee, ended the public hearing portion of the meeting on a high note by thanking everybody who showed up.

To applause from plan proponents and opponents alike, she said, "We've got to see each other on the street, and I want us to remain friends."

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